Larridin CMO Denis Scott appeared on the very popular Selling Intelligence podcast last wee, on a mission to help educate and inform revenue leaders about the impact of AI in the enterprise. This was Part 1; Part 2 will air soon.
The podcast hosts, Mark Petruzzi and Alan Randolph, took Denis through half an hour of in-depth Q&A about how Larridin helps accelerate AI adoption and impact across enterprise companies. They seemed to find the conversation compelling.
The key takeaway from the interview was summed up in a single sentence - and it came from one of the hosts, Mark Petruzzi, not Denis: "Any board director should be building their relationship with Larridin."
Here's a brief Q&A from the interview.
Q. Why did Denis Scott move from building brands to an enterprise AI measurement company?
A. As a marketing head, Denis was leading revenue: one of the largest line items on a typical company profit and loss (P&L) statement. This put him in the middle of the AI explosion, when AI took off a few years ago. So Denis jumped at the chance to work for a company that helps companies make sense of what's happening.
Q. Larridin's focus is radical honesty. How is working at Larridin different than working at a consumer brand?
A. Any reliable measurement company is going to report good news and... well, opportunities. At consumer brands such as Clorox, you have specific consumer constituencies, with millions of people each, that you sell to. At Larridin, the constituency is a much smaller, tighter group: senior executives concerned about business outcomes. There's still a personal element, but it's a much bigger challenge.
Q. Executives today need to understand the impact of AI, even as it's changing. So "any board director should be building their relationship with Larridin" (our emphasis). Say more about this challenge.
A. Token costs are suddenly a board-level question. A marketing leader might be spending $50 million on AI - and asking for more. They're going to get asked what they're getting in return. Only a measurement platform like Larridin can answer that.
Q. Where do marketing executives start with AI?
A. First, executives should use AI in their own work. It reduces the need to involve others in "get it done"-type tasks, and teaches you key lessons. For instance, AI can speed up writing a lot, but most of it needs a personal touch. And encourage your team and your colleagues to do the same. Then you can spend more time doing the things only you can do, with the people you get the most out of working with.
Q. AI spending for 2026 is tracking at around $600 billion, and projected to double to more than $1 trillion next year. What are leaders doing right and wrong?
A. Last year, the topic was AI adoption. Now, leaders need to measure their spending and move toward telling a story about what they're getting out of it.
Q. From everything that you and Larridin see, what are two things you'd like people to know right now?
A. There's one piece of good news, and one piece of bad news. The bad news is, your team and your company are using way more tools than you think. Executives who we talk to always think their company is using a few dozen AI tools. When we fire up Larridin, we always see that there are hundreds of tools in use. 10x what people think. You have to get your hands around that to even say that you're managing and optimizing how AI is used in your company. The good news is that the top 10% of your users are almost certainly using AI to outperform any humans in history; they are 3x, or 5x, or 10x more productive than you could have ever expected before. The opportunity to take that performance, and bring your whole team up to that level, is huge.
The hosts closed by noting that these are just the conversations they're having every day. Listen to the entire conversation now at Measuring AI ROI and Turning Adoption into Business Outcomes - Part 1. And tune in for Part 2 next week at the Selling Intelligence podcast.
If you'd like to know more about how AI is being used at your own company, on revenue teams and beyond, reach out to Larridin to learn more.